Married early 40s, no kids. M/H cost of living area.
Net worth $6.4M (4.2 brokerage; 2.1 retirement; 100k crypto). No house or other large assets; still renting as we haven't decided where we want to be more permanently.
HHI $725k (580k from my mid-level corporate job; 65k from partner's coaching/consulting business; 80k in investment income). ~$200k in taxes, so $525 take home after tax.
$185k in expenses last year (55k in rent; 30k in charitable giving; 100k for everything else)
I'm holding vested options in company stock currently worth ~$400k (not counted in net worth, since it could go to zero before I sell). If I count additional RSUs and options that will vest in the next 2-3 years, total expected value of company stock is probably in the 1.5-2.5M range in 2-3 years; however, if the share price takes off it could easily get into the 2.5-4M range (or it could of course drop off well below 1.5M).
I'm not completely burned out, but I'm much more disengaged from work than I used to be. There was a time when I thought I wanted to be in the C-suite and never retire. But as I got closer to our leaders I realized that their day-to-day seemed kind of awful; and the politics needed to get there was not something I had any interest in engaging in. My physical and mental health also starts to drop off if I'm not getting 8+ hours of sleep and a decent amount of physical activity, which does not seem compatible with the 60-80hr weeks required to succeed as a corporate executive.
Around the time I realized I didn't even want my boss's job, I stumbled upon this community. Since then I've been treading water career-wise, but income keeps going up through raises and increasing bonuses. Our path to FI really accelerated after a move to remote work in a comparatively lower cost-of-living area during the pandemic. I still enjoy the collaboration with brilliant colleagues, and some of the work is still quite interesting. But the current very intense cost cutting / squeezing every ounce of effort out of every employee leadership style just isn't for me -- it has actually led me to want to put in less effort, which then I feel guilt/shame about because I'm very achievement oriented.
Based on the numbers, I think we'd be good to go at our current spend level, even with healthcare added (but feel free to challenge me on this!) -- especially if my partner continues her business (though this probably isn't even needed). However, projecting spending is one of the things I'm most struggling with. We don't know where we want to live or how expensive the house we will eventually buy will be. We don't know if we'll live in one place or want to do winters or summers somewhere different, requiring an extra home or rental. And we likely won't figure this out until after we FIRE and take the time to travel around to experience a few different places.
Reading other posts, I assume we'll need to add $30-50k to the budget for healthcare. And we should probably assume total housing cost will exceed our current rent by some margin to be safe. Lastly I wonder about how additional free time and hobbies might add to our costs -- I don't anticipate anything wildly expensive, but extra gym/sport memberships, more travel, and various hobby supplies can potentially add up. Both of us are very financially responsible, and I'm quite confident we could cut back substantially if needed. But if that was a predictably likely outcome, I might be willing to suck it up and work another couple years to avoid having to tighten belts.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you estimate future costs through such uncertainty?
What about the decision whether to hang around for 2-3 years for the chance of adding a couple million or more? It doesn't feel like we need it since we don't have super fancy tastes, but I do worry about the potential future feelings of regret if the share price takes off right after I leave.
Are there any spending or tax strategies to consider in this situation?